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Dombrowski Presents on the Abortion Debate at Harvard Law School

November 22, 2011

Philosophy Professor Daniel Dombrowski presented “Immediate Hominization v. Delayed Hominization in the Abortion Debate” at Harvard Law School in November.

In his lecture, Dombrowski addressed the history of the moral status of the fetus in Western Christianity. The fetus in the early stages of pregnancy was not typically viewed as a human person until the 17th century. He detailed the contemporary implications of the transition from the delayed hominization views of Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (that is, a fetus is not a person in the early stages of pregnancy) to the immediate hominization view (that is, the fetus is a person beginning with conception). He defended the delayed hominization view.